One Truth
by It's a MadWorld
Summary: AU. Shrunken!L. He should have been dead, but instead he became Ryuuzaki Rue, precocious little schoolboy with an eye for solving crime. Mistakes made as a child leads to L becoming one once again, but he's not going to let that stop him from discovering the mystery behind the crime syndacate known as K.I.R.A and his connection to it. But he might not like what he finds. OOC


**I wrote this a while back and decided to finally post it.**

**This is inspired by Detective Conan/Case Closed, and based on two One-Shots I wrote. I own neither Detective Conan or Death Note**

**There is no Wammy's House in this.**

**Everyone's at least a little OOC in this, but I am trying my best.**

* * *

Watari always knew that eventually, L would take on a case that he was completely against. Whether because it was far below L's talents, or a case that could get his adopted son killed. The case that L was currently working on was the second, and more horrifying one.

L had always avoided cases with those who made a career off of committing criminal acts, because most of the time they were uninteresting, but one case did end up catch the young man's attention. It was the case of an entire organization that had the criminal world shaking at its core. The organization, self-proclaimed as K.I.R.A, specialized in what was assumed to be an poison, which caused spontaneous heart attacks with no explanation how. Though this was mainly because the poison, if it really was that, had so far been undetected in the victims' bloodstreams.

While K.I.R.A. did keep the professional criminal world in check, and also somehow killed minor criminals, the law did see it as a threat. They could easily switch to a group other than criminals, or they could contaminate food and water supplies on purpose. They had proven that they would kill anyone who investigated much too hard into the manor, even if they were otherwise innocent. This was what made Watari the most afraid. But once L had his mind on a case, there was nothing Watari could do to stop him.

* * *

Watari sighed as he placed a new piece of strawberry cake and a cup of tea in front of L, taking away the empty plates afterwards. He really wished that L would at least take time off to sleep, but the challenge this case was giving him was too thrilling. Watari caught sight of the news page that L was reading over, and was surprised at what he saw. Unless the notorious thief Phantom Angel had joined forces with K.I.R.A, which he highly doubted, L had amazingly taken a break from the K.I.R.A. case.

L had become interested in the thief not long after they became well known. To him and the rest of the world, Phantom Angel was a walking mystery. Their true gender hadn't even been confirmed, though many of the public assumed the thief to be a woman. L on the other hand, argued that other possibilities had to be considered.

L looked away from his computer screen as he started piling sugar cubes into his tea. The bags underneath his eyes stood out in the low light.

"Watari, I've decided that I'm going to take a break from the K.I.R.A. case and watch the next Phantom Angel heist as it's happening. I believe it would be vital to my research on them." He stirred his tea before taking a small sip. Finding it not sweet enough, he started adding more. "I will be going alone."

Watari was silent for a few moments, thinking it over. It wouldn't be the first time that L went somewhere on his own, but the man had become so dependant on Watari, that he often called Watari to come get him or join him within the hour. Watari had long suspected that it was actually that L couldn't stand to be in large crowds alone, which made him wonder why L would be so willing to go to the heist, despite the fact that many people always went to the area in an attempt to get a glimpse of the famous thief.

"Is there anything that you will need me to do, L?" Watari gave the young man a worried glance, which L caught.

"Watari, I will be fine. All I will need for you to do is get me to the area where Phantom Angel has set their next heist at."

* * *

Maybe he should have actually gone to the heist. Then he wouldn't be in the situation that he was in. As well, he might have actually had a good time.

* * *

The first thing that registered to L when he woke up was how his clothing felt. They felt airy, and heavy. The memories of before registered next. He had used the heist as an excuse to investigate an alley way where one of the K.I.R.A. victims had been found, knowing that Watari would have said something against it. He had doubted that the investigators had found everything of significance, and though that he could find something himself. It started getting a little fuzzy then, but he did remember that he had been ambushed by a woman who admitted to being a member of K.I.R.A. and that he must had been fed the poison the organization specialized in. Then it finally registered that he should have been dead.

He opened his eyes and was greeted by the early morning light. He could already feel himself nodding off once again, his body craving sleep due to the lack he had of it in the last few months. He forced himself into a normal sitting position, and that was when he realized that something was very, very wrong. The reason his cloths felt like they did, was because they had become much too big for him now. He had shrunk, possibly been turned right back into a child, despite how improbable it was.

But apparently not impossible.

While most people would have been freaking out by that point, L calmly thought over the situation. It was likely that the heart attacks the poison caused could be from the stress the body went through when it started to shrink and the person died before they noticeably shrunk. Why he had survived it was something he was not quite sure of.

But this did not explain how it could have happened. His logical mind had started to go mad once the situation truly dawned on it. Many possible solutions ran his way, but none of them made any real sense.

He knew that his first course of action would be to contact Watari, but to his annoyance,he found that his attacker had taken his phone. That phone was one of two that he knew of that could get through all the blocks that had been set up to keep out unwanted calls and trackers. The only other one he knew that could call Watari was Roger Ruvie, but L had no idea as to where the old man lived, only that it was thankfully in the town that he was in, and it was highly unlikely that he could make it there in such a small body even if he knew the exact location. "And if I somehow managed to track down Roger, there was no saying that Roger would actually believe me, or even let me talk. Roger hated kids, last I remember."

"You seem to have gotten yourself into some kind of trouble." He had been too concentrated on his predicament that he hadn't noticed someone else entering the alley way. The boy stood not to far away from him, fiddling with his wide rimmed glasses. Obviously school aged, if the backpack had anything to say about it. Height and other features probably put him in middle school.

"You don't have to tell me anything, I just want to help if I can. Something tells me that I'd rather not know anyway." L noticed that he was eyeing his oversized clothing, but it was hard not too. It was then that L noticed that the boy had similar, if not the exact same eyes as him, just without the eye bags (Did he even have those anymore?). L wondered if it was possible they were related some would be interesting to find out, but not relevant at the time.

"Could you help me with this clothing? I like them a lot but they're too big for me." L asked in the most childish way possible for him, which wasn't much like any child. He was right in thinking that he was a child once again though, if his voice had any say in the matter. Rather than questioning anything, the boy closed the distance between them and sat down beside him, with one knee upright.

"There is no way you could walk around in such cloths. I'd have to cut pieces off."

"I don't mind that at all."

Nodding, the boy took a penknife out from a pocket inside his baggy white dress shirt, and went along shortening L's clothing so they fit him a bit better. He even used some of the scraps of the shirt to create a belt for his pants, which they could both tell would fall down otherwise.

L finally stood up, testing his new height. Everything felt strange, especially not feeling the slouch that his spine had grown into, but he didn't let this be noticeable to the boy. Now that he could clearly see his shrunken body, he decided that he was about six years of age, if memory served him right.

"Thank you." L said as the boy started collecting the excess pieces of clothing. The boy nodded in reply, standing up with the clump of scraps. He walked over to the dumpster and tossed them in. Afterwards, turned to look at L again, and ran his fingers through his white hair.

"There are many puzzling things about this situation, but somethings are clear to me. You are clearly not a normal child. But who am I to really comment on that? I never was when I was younger." The boy trailed off at the end, obviously remembering something, but no emotions crossed his face, so for all L knew, he could have been remembering yesterday's weather.

"Can you give me a name to call you? I'd like something other than 'the strange child'. You get where I'm coming from, right? It doesn't even have to be your real one."

L searched his mind for an easy alias, but all those that came to mind were ones he used for detective work. He needed a completely new one. His path of thinking switched to some of the people he used to know when he was truly younger. He thought of his best friend Raito Yagami (better known as Light) and the boy's friend Luek Yuk, his stalkers August Zakirius and Rue Birthday, as well Xaivier, Yessica and Zader, but the last ones quickly faded from his mind.

"Ri-you-zoci Roo." L tested the name he had picked out from his old friends' names out loud, and some how it felt right. "Spelt R-Y-U-U-Z-A-K-I space R-U-E." R from Raito's name, YU from Luek's last name, Zaki from August's last name, and of course his last name came from Rue's first. It wasn't the most creative last name but it didn't need to be.

"Hmm...Ryuu I believe is the Japanese word for Dragon, Zaki means pure, and Rue is the name of some plant and is sometimes connected to the name Ruth, which means friend." The boy said, his face and tone not changing once during his offering of facts. At L's look of curiosity, though the reason for it was misinterpreted, the boy smirked. "Useless facts are a specialty of mine, along with pissing people off."

L nodded, curious about this strange boy. A person like him, helping a stranger without asking too many questions, seemed almost impossible, unless he had hidden motives. Was it possible the boy was working for K.I.R.A? He knew that K.I.R.A had members and supporters in the most unlikely of people. A middle-school kid wouldn't be all that strange

L was broken out of his thoughts when he realized the boy had started speaking again, though he almost didn't seem to be talking to him. "Yes, everyone calls me the Niding, Eburnean, Atrocious Rectalgia (1) - Near for short." He twirled some of his white hair, exposing one of his eyebrows and showing that the boy definitely dyed it. He was naturally brunette.

"Now, a man named Roger that happens to hate kids. Around here, that could only be Roger Ruvie. I can take you to him."

Yes, L decided, this boy was impossible.

* * *

Light smirked, and chuckled a what he had just been told

"So he shrunk into a child. Almost everything is going just as planned." He looked down at Rem once again. Maybe he should stop making those who worked for him bow down to him on their hands and knees, but his god-complex wouldn't allow him. "Seeing that you were the one that finally put the plan into motion, I will see that you are rewarded."

Rem nodded, and stood up, knowing this was her cue to leave the alone, Light thought about everything he had learnt. So it was possible for the 'poison' to do similar to what he had originally intended when he had it made, though not like he had hoped it would. He wanted to live forever, but the human lifespan wouldn't allow that. But at least he was living life to the fullest, getting rid of criminals one by one, making the world a better place. The time would come soon when the public realized that K.I.R.A. existed.

He pushed away some notes, looking for the notebook where he wrote down all the names of people that died of the poison and other such notes, so he could document what had happened. He paused when he came across a picture. He thought that it was appropriate for the time that he found that smirked as he looked at the two children in the photo. Both had bothered to smile for once.

"Mistake one Lawliet, was telling me that you became L. Mistake two was abandoning me for your job." He put the photo aside and continued searching for his notebook. Honestly, he didn't know what he was going to do next when it came to L, but he knew that his childish pique would have a say in L's fate.

* * *

**1-They're call him a mean, sneaky, and cowardly, white haired, cruel, pain in the ass.**

**If L's reaction seemed dull, try and imagine L freaking out over that instead of just taking the situation with ease. There, that's why I wasn't able to write more reaction from.**

**So Near's the most OOC out of them all, but to cover that up, I think if he had never ended up at Wammy's House/never had his parents die, he would have been much different.**

**I don't know when I'll update this next, so don't expect frequent updates.**


End file.
